Document Type
Article
Publication Title
George Washington Journal of Energy and Environmental Law
Publication Date
Spring 2025
Page Number
155
Keywords
environmental law, democratic process
Disciplines
Environmental Law | Law
Abstract
The increasingly dysfunctional federal democratic process poses chal- lenges to effective, consistent responses to the most important environmental risks. Information about the state of the environment and the performance of environmental protection measures can play a surprisingly important role by providing the information necessary for the public and decision-makers to resist disinformation efforts and prioritize the responses to these threats. Until 1997 the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) produced annual State of the Environment (SOE) reports as required by Section 201 of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. In response to paperwork reduc- tion legislation adopted in 1995, though, the CEQ interpreted the paperwork legislation to require termination of the SOE reports, and no comprehensive alternative has filled the gap. In the absence of these reports, federal agencies, members of Congress, and the public lack a national assessment of the greatest environmental risks and data on progress toward addressing them. Congress and the White House are unlikely to require development of SOE reports in the near term, but this Article outlines a viable alternative: regional, state, and local SOE initiatives. The Article draws on a state-specific case study that included development of an SOE report via a collaborative, multi-scalar, and data-driven approach. The case study demonstrates how an open-source, iterative process can serve as an example for other states and local governments and can improve environmental governance in the United States even in this polarized era.
Recommended Citation
Michael Vandenbergh, M. Caballero, and Ethan I. Thorpe,
Information for Environmental Governance: The Value of State of the Environmental Reports in a Polarized Era, 16 George Washington Journal of Energy and Environmental Law. 155
(2025)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/faculty-publications/1719